BUXUM
BUXUM (
πύξος) properly means the
wood of the box tree, but was given as a name to many things made of this
wood. The tablets used for writing on, and covered with wax (
tabulae ceratae), were usually made of this wood.
Hence we read in Propertius (
3.22,
8), “Vulgari buxo sordida cera fuit.”
These
tabellae were sometimes called
cerata buxa. In the same way the Greek
πυξίον, πυξίδιον, formed from
πύξος,
“box-wood,” came to be applied to any tablets, whether they
were made of this wood or any other substance; in which sense the word
occurs in the Septuagint (
τὰ πυξία τὰ
λίθινα, Exod. 24.12; compare Is. 30.8; Hab. 2.2). Tops were made
of box-wood (
volubile buxum,
Verg. A. 7.382; Pers. 3.51); also all wind
instruments, especially the flute (
Ov. Pont.
1.1,
45,
Met. 12.158,
Fast. 6.697 ;
Verg. A. 9.619); combs (whence
Juv.
14.194, speaks of
caput intactum buxo),
and boxes (Luc.
Asin. 14). [W.
S.]
[
J.H.F]
